ABSTRACT Green Intellectual Capital (GIC) is positioned as a strategic intangible resource for improving environmental performance, yet evidence remains fragmented across constructs, mechanisms, outcomes, and boundary conditions. This study systematically reviews organizational‐level GIC research to explain how GIC is associated with environmental and business value. Following a PRISMA 2020‐aligned protocol, peer‐reviewed articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science were screened using predefined criteria, yielding 219 studies published between 2008 and 2026. The review shows that green human, structural, and relational capital are linked to environmental performance through knowledge integration, green capabilities, stakeholder alignment, and green innovation. It identifies green innovation as both an outcome of GIC and a conversion mechanism linking intangible green resources to performance. The study develops a mechanism‐based framework and offers practical guidance for building workforce, organizational, and relational assets for environmental strategy.
ABSTRACT This paper examines whether consumers' valuation of a product‐level sustainability claim differs according to their beer‐consumption orientation. Using a discrete choice experiment with 1046 Spanish beer consumers, we estimate conditional logit and panel mixed logit models to analyse willingness to pay for a sustainability claim in beer. The results show a significant average willingness to pay of €1.31 for sustainability. Scenario‐based estimates indicate a higher total willingness to pay among craft beer consumers (€1.97) and a lower total willingness to pay among alcohol‐free beer consumers (€0.89). However, the corresponding interaction effects are not statistically significant at conventional levels. These results provide robust evidence of a positive average consumer valuation of sustainability, while differences associated with beer‐consumption orientation remain exploratory rather than conclusive. The findings highlight substantial heterogeneity in the valuation of sustainable beer attributes and call for cautious interpretation of differences across consumer orientations.
ABSTRACT Big data have become an increasingly important production factor in the digital economy. Although the resource‐based view (RBV) emphasizes the rarity of strategic resources, the growing accessibility of big data challenges this traditional perspective. Under conditions of data abundance, firms differ not in their access to data but in their AI‐enabled absorptive capacity to transform data into operational and environmental value. However, little is known about whether data‐driven public policies can improve corporate energy efficiency through this capability. Exploiting China's National Pilot Zones for Big Data (NPZBD) as a quasinatural experiment, we examine the impact of big data policy on corporate energy consumption intensity (ECI) using a staggered difference‐in‐differences approach and a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2020. The results show that NPZBD significantly reduces corporate ECI, and the findings remain robust across a series of alternative specifications and identification tests. Further analysis indicates that the policy effect is stronger when firms possess greater AI‐enabled absorptive capacity, better financing capacity, and stronger ESG‐oriented governance. Moreover, the effect is more pronounced among state‐owned enterprises and high‐polluting firms. By distinguishing accessible data resources from AI‐enabled absorptive capacity, this study extends the RBV under conditions of data abundance and provides new evidence on how data‐driven public policies promote corporate energy efficiency and sustainable development.
ABSTRACT This paper investigates the relationship between sustainability reporting quality (SRQ) and corporate investment activity, focusing on corporate investment intensity and corporate investment inefficiency, and the moderating role of national political stability. Using a multinational sample of 3647 firms from advanced (G7) and emerging (BRICS) economies, we find that higher SRQ restrains the overall level of investment (lower corporate investment intensity). Moreover, we present novel evidence of a dual effect of SRQ on corporate investment inefficiency: Higher SRQ increases inefficiency among firms that overinvest, further aggravating their overinvestment. However, among firms that underinvest, higher SRQ drives investment toward fundamentals‐implied levels, improving efficiency. Importantly, the negative relationship between SRQ and corporate investment intensity is stronger in politically stable countries, where strong institutions enhance disclosure credibility and managerial discipline. Our findings are timely as firms and regulators increasingly rely on sustainability disclosures to guide capital allocation. Our results are robust to alternative variable definitions, sub‐sample analysis and endogeneity corrections implemented using two‐step system GMM, propensity score matching and entropy balancing. We contribute nuanced insights into the context‐dependent impacts of SRQ, informing various stakeholders on aligning sustainability reporting with efficient resource deployment across diverse institutional settings.
ABSTRACT Many circular economy ( CE ) readiness tools exist at the enterprise level, but most lack a clear theoretical foundation and are unable to capture the multidimensional complexity of CE transitions. This study addresses the gap by developing Circular Economy Readiness Indicators (CERIs) that integrate the Natural‐Resource‐Based View, Institutional Theory, and the Theory of Planned Behavior into a single multidimensional framework. A content analysis of 278 indicators from 30 CE readiness tools (2014–2024) identified three theoretically grounded dimensions: technical‐operational, governance‐external, and behavioral‐organizational, with r‐strategies and materials and resources showing the highest coverage. CERIs were then validated across 30 Chinese enterprises (10 small, 10 medium, 10 large; 15 certified, 15 noncertified), revealing a wide spread of readiness levels, a strong and statistically significant size effect, a certification advantage that emerges clearly at medium and large scale but not among small firms, and weaker governance than technical‐operational performance. CE RIs offer a theoretically grounded, validated tool for assessing enterprise CE readiness, with implications for managers, policymakers, and scholarship.
ABSTRACT This paper investigates the impact of narcissistic Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) on the quality of corporate climate‐related financial disclosure as required by the Task Force on Climate‐related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework. Using a sample of S&P 1500 firms, the analysis tests the association between principal component‐based two‐dimensional CEO narcissism measure and generative Natural Language Processing (NLP) measures of disclosure quality across the four TCFD pillars. The results reveal that firms led by more narcissistic CEOs produce significantly weaker, less decision‐useful climate disclosures, consistent with impression management preferences over substantive transparency. The impact is amplified in financially unconstrained firms but diminishes when external disciplining pressures are strong. Pillar‐level analysis reveals weaknesses in strategy, risk management, and metrics disclosures, whereas symbolic governance remains largely unaffected. The findings remain robust after addressing endogeneity using instrumental variable estimation, propensity score matching, and Heckman selection models. The study extends the CEO narcissism literature to TCFD‐aligned climate‐related financial disclosure, a distinct disclosure setting requiring managers to communicate forward‐looking, financially material climate risks and strategic resilience. The findings suggest that narcissistic leadership is associated with lower‐quality TCFD disclosure, especially in the more substantive reporting dimensions.
ABSTRACT Firm‐level drivers of corporate waste remain underresearched relative to other sustainability topics, such as carbon emissions and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure. Moreover, the role of female directors on corporate boards in this realm is also underexplored. Therefore, drawing on strategic choice, agency, and critical mass theories, this study examines whether business strategy explains variation in firm‐level waste outcomes and whether board gender diversity strengthens these associations. We analyze an unbalanced panel of 3994 firm‐year observations for 336 firms across 35 countries over the period 2010–2023, estimated with high‐dimensional (industry, year, and country) fixed‐effects models. Findings confirm that prospector‐oriented strategies are associated with lower waste generation and higher recycling, whereas defender‐oriented strategies do not show the lower waste predicted by an efficiency logic. These relationships are stronger when boards include independent female directors and reach a critical mass of at least three women. The findings imply that aligning strategic orientation with board composition can improve corporate waste‐management outcomes and extend business strategy and corporate governance research into the waste management domain, offering implications for managers, investors, and policymakers.
ABSTRACT In recent years, fostering sustainability within organizational and supply chain processes across all sectors has emerged as a central issue, driven by intensifying global environmental concerns. This paper sheds light on how companies in the steel sector can develop specific capabilities to implement suitable technologies for sustainable development. Adopting the dynamic capability theory, the study investigates three European steel companies that are highly committed to sustainability. Qualitative data from interviews show which types of dynamic capabilities they used for each technology to be adopted. The results reveal, first, that companies rely more on sensing, seizing, or transforming capabilities depending on the maturity level of the technologies, and second, that companies are increasingly involving new business partners outside their traditional supply chain in the implementation of sustainable technologies. This research offers a framework to enable companies to adopt sustainable technologies by leveraging a specific classification of dynamic capabilities.
ABSTRACT This study examines how environmental initiatives undertaken by supply chain partners influence multidimensional efficiency and whether national long‐term orientation moderates these relationships. Using panel data from 30 counterparts of Merck & Co. Inc. (180 firm–year observations, 2018–2023), innovation efficiency, eco‐efficiency, and market efficiency are estimated using a three‐stage range directional measure network data envelopment analysis model. Firm and year fixed‐effects regressions with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors are employed to evaluate the effects of resource use, emissions reduction, and environmental innovation initiatives. Results reveal distinct nonlinear relationships across environmental dimensions. Resource use initiatives exhibit diminishing returns, whereas emissions reduction and environmental innovation involve initial efficiency losses before generating positive outcomes at higher implementation levels. Long‐term orientation strengthens these later‐stage benefits, indicating that the institutional context shapes the timing and magnitude of environmental investment returns. Findings demonstrate that environmental initiatives should be evaluated according to their specific dimensions and implementation horizons rather than as uniformly efficiency‐enhancing strategies.
ABSTRACT The study focuses on the relationship between green technological innovation and corporate financial performance in the Chinese forestry industry, with an emphasis on the moderating role of board environmental expertise. Based on Upper Echelons Theory and Resource Orchestration Theory, board environmental expertise is considered to be a corporate governance ability to help firms better identify, allocate, and use green resources. Empirical evidence obtained by using panel data from Chinese listed forestry and related firms from 2010 to 2023 tends to show that green technological innovation has a significant positive impact on corporate financial performance. This finding reveals that board environmental expertise can also play an important role in improving the association between green technological innovation and corporate financial performance. We find that among the different types of board environmental expertise, the environmental expertise of the chairman has the highest moderating effect. In contrast, the environmental expertise of the overall board is relatively weak, and the environmental expertise of independent directors does not have a significant effect. This study makes contributions to the literature by pointing out that board environmental expertise is an important corporate governance ability to realize the value of green innovation.
ABSTRACT Firms face increasing pressure from investors and stakeholders to enhance environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, yet the mechanisms through which market sentiment shapes ESG outcomes remain unclear. This study examines how investor sentiment influences ESG performance, focusing on the mediating role of CEO power and the moderating role of board gender diversity. Drawing on a panel of 770 nonfinancial Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2022, we integrate data from the China Stock Market and Accounting Research (CSMAR) database with ESG ratings from the Wind database. Investor sentiment is measured using a composite index derived from principal component analysis; CEO power is captured across five organizational dimensions, and board gender diversity is assessed by the proportion of female directors. Our findings show that positive investor sentiment enhances ESG performance, while simultaneously constraining CEO power, which partially mediates the sentiment–ESG relationship. Moreover, board gender diversity amplifies the positive impact of investor sentiment on ESG outcomes. These results advance understanding of how behavioral and governance factors interact to shape sustainability practices. From a policy perspective, the findings underscore the need for governance systems that limit excessive CEO dominance, encourage board diversity, and align corporate strategies with investor expectations to foster sustainable and transparent capital markets.
ABSTRACT This study examines the role of emotional capital resources in driving sustainable human resource management (HRM) decisions and their integration into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDGs 3 (Good Health and Well‐Being) and 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). A quantitative methodology was employed, consisting of a survey of 96 human resource managers from various sectors in Spain. The mediation model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS‐SEM) with 10,000 bootstrapping subsamples. To validate the sample size ( N = 96), a post hoc power analysis was performed via G*Power, showing a strong statistical power of 92.7%. A full collinearity assessment approach was employed within SmartPLS to rule out common method bias, with all inner VIF values exactly 1.000, substantially below the 3.3 threshold, and the use of single‐item measures was methodologically justified. Emotional capital is a pivotal mediating factor in sustainable HRM decision‐making. Results indicate that sustainable HRM decisions have a positive relationship with emotional capital (H1, p < 0.004), and emotional capital has a positive relationship with SDG 3 (H2, p < 0.001). Furthermore, emotional capital acts as a full mediator in the relationship between sustainable HRM decisions and SDG 3 (H4, p < 0.013). However, the relationship between emotional capital and SDG 8 was not supported (H3, p > 0.073), and the path between sustainable HRM decisions and SDG 8 through emotional capital was also rejected (H5, p > 0.145), highlighting distinct microfoundational boundaries when mapping emotional resources onto macroeconomic targets. This study provides empirical justification for a microlevel pathway by linking the emotional capital of HR managers to SDG outcomes through sustainable HRM decisions. Results indicate that while sustainable HRM decisions successfully translate into SDG 3 through the full mediation of emotional capital, the mechanisms do not statistically map onto macroeconomic targets like SDG 8. Therefore, the practical model is strictly recommended for social sustainability (health and well‐being) frameworks.
ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate how smart tourism destination attributes influence destination coolness and prestige and how these perceptions subsequently affect travel experience satisfaction, eudaimonic well‐being, and passionate desire to revisit. It further examines the moderating role of security and privacy concerns in these relationships. Data were collected from tourists who had visited a smart tourism destination in the past year, and the proposed model was tested using “partial least squares structural equation modeling” (PLS‐SEM). The results reveal that accessibility, informativeness, interactivity, and personalization influence destination coolness, whereas smart tourism resources, informativeness, interactivity, and personalization significantly affect destination prestige. Both destination coolness and prestige positively influenced travel experience satisfaction, which in turn enhances tourists' eudaimonic well‐being and passionate desire to revisit. Security/privacy concerns were found to weaken the positive effects of smart tourism resources and personalization on destination coolness and prestige. This study contributes to smart tourism research by proposing a comprehensive model that integrates core, augmented, and facilitating destination attributes; empirically demonstrating how these attributes shape destination coolness and prestige and revealing their subsequent effects on satisfaction, eudaimonic well‐being, and passionate desire to revisit; and finally introducing security/privacy concerns as a key moderating factor influencing these relationships.
ABSTRACT Understanding the evolving emotional landscape surrounding climate change is critical for developing effective environmental strategies and communication. This study offers an analysis of public emotions toward human‐induced climate change by leveraging big data analytics and machine learning techniques on social media content from platform X. Grounded in the collective emotions framework, we trained a model to classify emotional responses—joy, anger, fear, sadness, disgust, and surprise—based on emotion‐related hashtags. We then analyzed climate change–related posts collected from the first week of each year between 2013 and 2022 to predict emotional trends. The findings reveal substantial year‐to‐year fluctuations in emotional expression, with fear consistently emerging as the dominant sentiment. Although no clear linear trajectory was identified, the results highlight patterns of public concern and awareness. By integrating computational methods with social theory, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of how collective emotions surrounding climate change evolve, offering implications for policymakers, communicators, and organizations aiming to enhance climate engagement and sustainable behavior.
ABSTRACT Based on signaling theory and information asymmetry theory, this study uses a sample of Chinese A share listed firms from 2012 to 2023 to examine the effect of climate risk disclosure (CRD) on institutional on‐site research and its economic consequences. The results show that high‐quality CRD significantly increases both the frequency and the depth of institutional research. This conclusion remains robust after a series of endogeneity tests. The mechanism analysis indicates that CRD promotes institutional research through two channels: a reputational compensation effect and an information guidance effect. The heterogeneity analysis further shows that these effects are more pronounced among firms with greater ESG rating divergence, firms facing stronger EP, and firms with a lower proportion of female executives. Moreover, the effect mainly stems from the disclosure of transition risks rather than physical risks. Further analysis reveals that the institutional research induced by CRD can ultimately promote corporate environmental investment, enhance market valuation, and improve investor structure. Overall, this study integrates signaling theory and information asymmetry theory into a unified analytical framework of disclosure, verification, and value. It highlights the theoretical role of institutional research as the core verification mechanism and provides practical implications for corporate disclosure strategies, investor due diligence, and regulatory standard setting.
ABSTRACT Family businesses face increasing pressure to integrate sustainability into strategic decision‐making; however, existing strategic management frameworks remain insufficiently adapted to operationalizing sustainability within the specific context of family businesses. Using a design science research approach, this study proposes the ECOFAMILY Framework, which extends the balanced scorecard by embedding environmental, social, governance, and circular economy dimensions across its four perspectives. The framework enables the alignment of family values with measurable sustainability outcomes. An exploratory expert assessment provides preliminary insights into experts' perceptions of the framework's relevance, clarity, and applicability while also identifying implementation challenges in resource‐constrained contexts. This study contributes by operationalizing sustainability through a family‐business‐specific strategic management system, extending existing Sustainability balanced scorecard literature and redefining the strategic architecture through which family businesses integrate sustainability into strategic decision‐making.
ABSTRACT As companies increasingly define success by measures beyond financial returns, leaders in recent decades have faced a pressing challenge: translating stakeholder‐driven purpose into sustainability strategies that employees genuinely understand and enact. This exploratory study, framed in stakeholder theory and transformational leadership theory, investigates how B Corp leaders design and internally communicate B Corp strategies through stakeholder interaction. Fifteen semi‐structured interviews with leaders of Italian B Corps and 24 structured interviews with employees of their organizations were analyzed using the Gioia methodology; the findings show that leaders integrate stakeholder insights within a cocreation process, involving internal and external actors in strategy development. Internally, consistent with transformational leadership theory, leaders act as role models and rely on direct communication to involve employees in sustainability initiatives. The results also suggest that longer employee tenure may heighten resistance to sustainability‐oriented change, whereas higher organizational status facilitates understanding and alignment with sustainability strategies.
ABSTRACT Adopting an institutional‐theory lens, this study explores Italian companies' progress in disclosing their contributions to the environmental Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their non‐financial reports (NFRs). Using an Environmental SDGs Disclosure Index, the study examines whether an integrated corporate architecture shaped by common institutional pressures influences the extent of SDGs disclosure. The analysis focuses on Italian organizations operating in environmentally sensitive industries over the period 2018–2023. The findings reveal that the presence of a sustainability committee and the inclusion of a sustainability expert on that committee are positively associated with more extensive environmental SDGs disclosure. The results also indicate that disclosure is more extensive when environmental issues are integrated into corporate strategy and identified as material through the materiality assessment process. In addition, disclosure is more comprehensive when progress towards environmental goals is monitored through clearly defined short‐ and long‐term targets. This study contributes to the sustainability accounting literature by conceptualizing integrated corporate architecture as the coherent organizational configuration through which governance structures, strategic integration mechanisms, managerial processes, and accountability systems jointly enable firms to translate institutional sustainability pressures into substantive environmental SDGs disclosure. It also provides a framework for understanding the organizational mechanisms through which institutional pressures are internalized and translated into disclosure outcomes, thereby contributing to the broader debate on the implications of mandatory sustainability reporting requirements.
ABSTRACT Healthcare systems face rising expenditure and growing scrutiny over their environmental impact, to which single‐use medical devices contribute substantially. Because procurement determines which devices enter clinical use, it is a key lever for addressing both pressures. Yet healthcare procurement remains cost‐driven, with limited guidance on incorporating environmental aspects and reprocessing considerations. Developed through and applied in Portugal's National Health Service, this study develops a novel, generic, case‐driven multimethodology embedding Problem Structuring Methods (specifically cognitive mapping) within a Delphi process to support multiple stakeholders in identifying value aspects beyond unit price. Findings highlight life cycle cost evaluation, waste management costs, reprocessing feasibility, environmental impact and multiple‐use alternatives as central yet underused aspects for implementing circular medical device procurement. This study contributes methodologically by operationalising cognitive mapping within Delphi, empirically by identifying stakeholder‐supported circular procurement aspects, and practically by proposing a Portuguese roadmap for sustainability‐oriented medical device procurement.
ABSTRACT Mobility‐as‐a‐Service (MaaS) offers an integrated solution for sustainable urban transport. However, user adoption remains limited, and individuals' valuation of environmental performance is poorly understood. This study empirically examined sustainability‐oriented preferences in MaaS adoption using a stated‐preference choice experiment and a mixed logit model. From data collected from potential users, we estimated willingness to pay for diverse attributes, including demand‐responsive transport and CO 2 reduction. Results indicate that while users assign positive utility to environmental performance, this effect is considerably weaker than preferences for convenience and cost. CO 2 reduction ranked lowest in marginal willingness to pay and became nonsignificant for long‐distance routes. This demonstrates that nonenvironmental factors primarily drive adoption. These findings offer a critical policy insight. Achieving decarbonization goals through MaaS requires strategic interventions, such as bundling environmental objectives with tangible personal benefits, rather than relying solely on users' environmental goodwill.
